Its always fusterating when they don't give review scores based on the quality, but how much the writer has an affinity for the genre...
I wound up beating the 2nd scenario that is available in the demo pretty easy. The downsides of the demo is that (like the Divinity 2 demo) you can't save it...If a developer is going to offer such a nice demo, there should be an option to save!
Otherwise, it plays incredibly nice. I will probably pick this up for my 360. It is indeed a mix of stronghold and Caesar. Mostly, it reminds me of Capitalism + Sim City.
Plus the custom avatar creator is pretty neat. The traits can be pretty hilarious when you are forced to create drawbacks for your character (such as excessive gas).
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.